Yoshkar-Ola Prepares for the
Xth International Congress for Finno-Ugric Studies

The
International Congress for Finno-Ugric studies that gathers scholars -
ethnologists, historians, linguists across world -
was carried
on every five years during the last century.
The interest in
culture and history of the Finno-Ugrian peoples
as well as the number of the participants of this scientific and cultural
event are growing. Two thousand scholars took part at the
discussions of the Congress-2000 in
Estonian city of Tartu. Yoshkar-Ola, the capital of Mari El
Republic was determined the place for the next
meeting in
2005.

At the
meeting with the leadership of the friendship society
Finland-Russia that took place in February 11 in
the Federation Council, Alexander Torshin, the deputy Chairman of
the chamber and the representative of Mari El, answered the
questions of the Finnish guests who were concerned with the course
of preparation for the Finno-Ugric Congress. Are the
strengths enough to organize such an event? Are there possibilities
to accommodate all the participants of the Congress there? These
questions were asked by Heikki Talvitie, the Chairman of the
friendship society Finland-Russia, and Merja
Hannus, the Secretary General of the society and the coordinator of
the Consultative committee of the Finno-Ugrian peoples.
Mr. H.Talvitie was Ambassador of Finland in Russia and he knows the Russian problems well. He has
repeatedly been in different regions of Russia, including
republics of Mari El and Karelia whose
Senators took part at the last meeting.

Alexander
Torshin reassured the participants of the meeting
that preparations for the Congress were
sufficient. The Government
of the Republic is interested in carrying on the Congress in
Yoshkar-Ola and we are confident that everything is
organized well in Mari El, so the
Vice-Speaker answered the question about the possibility to
transfer the right to carry on the Congress to the
Khanty-Mansi autonomous region.

Summarizing
the meeting results, Heikki Talvitie noted that
this period has become favorable for
Russian-Finnish relations, enlargement of business
exchanges and tourism and implementation of a system of multi-visas. The relations with Russia are
foreground for Finland
in foreign policy; therefore the
establishment of direct contacts with the regions is very important
for the leadership of the society, as the former Ambassador of
Finland stressed. The Vice-Speaker of the
Federation Council Alexander Torshin recognized Finland for political and economical attention for Russia and the subjects
of the Russian Federation.

The meeting
passed in a sociable atmosphere, they recollected "general pages of
the common biography" and cardinal changes that had taken place in
the last decade in the relations of the two countries. Human and
business contacts of the 84 brother-cities of
Russia and Finland
became in the opinion of Senator
Viktor Stepanov a model of relations between two countries and "had
dissolved ice" between our countries.